I recently demolished a wall of my bathroom. This resulted in a large amount of plaster, slats and several 2×3 studs. While pulling the nails out of the corkscrewed studs I asked myself, “What incentive do I have to reuse this wood?” If I leave it on the curb, the garbage men will come by, put it in their truck and it will go away. I don’t usually think about the price I pay for garbage service because I always seem to pay the same amount and the money trail from my pocket to the curb is incredibly obfuscated. Somewhere in the mix of taxes you pay is the money for people to regularly collect your garbage. Chances are we overpay. The net result of this system is we feel no real pressure to reduce the amount of waste we produce.

Waste disposal is a necessity. Just like we need to eat, we also need a way to safely handle the byproducts of our daily lives. It would be ludicrous for me to entrust someone else with the sole responsibility of feeding me. That person would have complete control over me. The same is true of the handling of waste. If we entrust this critical part of our lives to a government they have the power to inflict serious pain upon us. Sacrificing even this small amount of our individual sovereignty has consequences. It’s similar to a child who’s parents clean her room. She never learns the value of responsibility and paramount to that she does not feel empowered. It leaves us unable to function and dissatisfied.

Also not having waste disposal in the hands of the community makes reuse much more difficult. If I need a bench for painting items in my workshop it should be much easier for me to get one at the local dump than to purchase or build a new one. Also recall that we have specific regulations and liability issues that make reuse difficult. Currently the operator of a salvage yard is partially liable for actions I choose to take there and they are required to not salvage certain items for “safety” reasons.

So what options do we have to reform the waste management system? Real privatization, not the corporatism that currently exists, isn’t a terrible idea. If we were billed based on the amount of trash we created we would be more likely to reduce, reuse and recycle. This doesn’t solve the empowerment issue, but it does make us slightly more responsible for the waste we produce. Unfortunately private entities removing waste would have a tendency to make the garbage “disappear” by moving it to an area where it’s cheaper to dispose of it. This makes perfect business sense, but it also allows the community to continue to be wasteful without seeing the real effects. Don’t forget that as garbage is trucked to the poorer side of the state, with cheaper property values, the gap between the classes is even further highlighted. Nothing says “I’m better than you” like putting your waste in someone else’s backyard. Also the community is still placing a task vital to their existence in the hands of a separate entity. The power has just shifted from the government to a private corporation.

I propose that the best model to handle the waste management issue would be that of a community co-operative. By taking responsibility for the garbage they generate, a community can incentivize all three of the Rs and dissuade people from using hazardous or difficult-to-deal-with materials. The key to the success of this co-operative would be community ownership of the means of production, in this case the landfill and recycling facilities. By having people from the community work in the co-op and maintaining worker control of the organization’s decision making mechanisms you can assure a business that meets the needs of the community. The community becomes more educated about waste disposal and derives a sense of satisfaction from their self sufficiency. Labor can be used to pay for waste removal services so the currently unemployed can still afford this necessity. In time the ecological impact of the community would be minimized. It could also serve as a model for other community services. The benefits of community cooperation are endless.

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